Financial Aid Integration with Clarity

The Clarity integration streamlines financial aid management by syncing student data and award decisions directly between Clarity and Finalsite Enrollment. This unified experience benefits both families and school staff by reducing manual work, improving visibility, and simplifying the application process.

What is Clarity?

Clarity is a financial aid platform designed to streamline the aid application process for both families and schools. 

In this Article

• Understanding the Integration
• How the integration works
• Getting started with the Clarity Integration
• New fields from Clarity
• Clarity Application Status definitions
• Managing multiple households & financial aid applications

---

Understanding the Integration

This integration allows Clarity and Finalsite Enrollment to sync student financial aid data automatically. Once financial aid is finalized in Clarity, it flows directly into Finalsite Enrollment, no manual entry required.

Why it matters

• For families: The integration ensures their financial aid status and enrollment details are synced between Clarity and Finalsite Enrollment. Families can view the same up-to-date information from either platform, whether they're checking their Finalsite Enrollment checklist or logging into Clarity, giving them confidence and a consistent experience at every step.
• For staff: It’s an opportunity to streamline operations, improve accuracy, and dedicate your time to building relationships with families rather than chasing down data. 

How the integration works

In Finalsite Enrollment

On the Finalsite Enrollment Parent Portal, families will see a Clarity Financial Aid checklist item that will lead them to Clarity's website when they click Go to Clarity, where they can create an account and start an application. Families can also choose to select the Financial Aid Not Needed button on the checklist item to bypass the application.

As families complete their Clarity Financial Aid application, admins will see the following:

• The financial aid status updates automatically in Finalsite Enrollment. Learn more about statuses in the Clarity Award Status definitions section below.
• The Clarity Awarded Amount field reflects the confirmed award and reduces the tuition due in the student’s contract.

Behind the scenes:

• Data from Clarity will sync with Finalsite Enrollment automatically every hour, with a manual sync option available through Clarity.
• Student and family IDs from Finalsite Enrollment are stored in Clarity to match records.
  • If IDs aren’t found, Clarity will match by name and date of birth, or create a new student record if needed.
• Four Clarity fields appear on the student contact record in Finalsite Enrollment, pulling data directly from Clarity. Learn more about these fields in the New fields from Clarity section below.

In Clarity

• Student data from Finalsite Enrollment is stored in Clarity under each student's record. To view these Finalsite-specific fields in the "Students" table, go to Settings for the Student table and enable them.
• Schools will review financial aid applications and determine the awards granted to their families. The final amount will populate in Finalsite Enrollment.
• Data from Clarity will sync with Finalsite Enrollment automatically every hour, with a manual sync option available through Clarity.

Notifying families of their financial aid awards

Once the awards have been confirmed, the school can decide how to share the final award amount with their families, such as sending a notification from Clarity, emailing or generating letters from Finalsite, or asking families to complete their contracts. No automated notification will be sent to families once awards have been decided, so it is up to the school to communicate with their families.

Getting started with the Clarity Integration

Step 1: Reach out to Clarity

If you are interested in setting up the integration, you will first need to reach out to Clarity to get started. A client success manager (CSM) at Clarity will assist you and walk you through the onboarding process.

Step 2: Set up the integration in Finalsite Enrollment

Your Clarity client success manager (CSM) will ask you to enable the integration in Finalsite and send them the API Credentials. To do this, navigate to your Clarity Tuition Integration page, under Settings > Fields & Data > Clarity Tuition Integration. Click Enable to get started.

Step 3: Copy the API Credentials

Once a user is created, click View Details. Within the API Credential Details window, you will copy the following credentials:

• Credential ID
• API Secret (You will need to click Reveal Secret to view and copy the code.)

Options in the API Credential Details window

Within this window, you will also see the following buttons:

• Generate JWT: Click this button to generate a short-lived JWT that can be used for making API calls.
• Regenerate Secret: Click this button if you need to regenerate the API Secret.

Step 4: Send the credentials to Clarity

After copying the credentials, you will send them to your client success manager at Clarity so they can enable the integration on their end and begin syncing data from Finalsite Enrollment. 

Important Note on Data Syncing

All Finalsite Enrollment fields synced with Clarity will update automatically when changes are made in Finalsite Enrollment. For example, if a New student is moved to Returning in Finalsite Enrollment, the student's Finalsite Enrollment Type will also be updated to Returning in Clarity after the next sync.

Step 5: Create the Clarity checklist item in Finalsite Enrollment

Once the integration has been enabled in Finalsite Enrollment and Clarity, please follow the following steps in Finalsite Enrollment to prepare the Enrollment checklist. To learn more about creating checklist items, visit Checklist Overview.

1. Navigate to your Enrollment Checklist, under Settings > Checklists > Enrollment.
2. Use the term-picker drop-down menu to select the term you are working in.
3. Click "Add a new enrollment checklist item" in the top left.
4. Within the Enrollment Checklist Item Details window, you will create the new Clarity item. For Item Type, select Clarity Tuition Integration.
   • We recommend adding a Parent Explanation with instructions for families to follow.
5. Once you've set up the item, click Submit to save your changes.

A note for Admissions-only clients

If your school is only using the Admissions module but not the Enrollment module, the Clarity Integration is still supported with the following considerations:

• You can add the Clarity Tuition Integration item to your Admissions checklist. It will function the same way as it does on the Enrollment checklist.
• You will still see the four Clarity fields under the Enrollment tab on the student record. These fields will auto-populate and remain searchable.
• If you're using Clarity’s contract feature, the financial aid amount can be pulled into the contract in Clarity. Reach out to your Clarity CSM with any questions.

Step 6: Rename the auto-generated contract fee for Finalsite contracts

For schools utilizing the Enrollment module and generating contracts through Finalsite, the system will automatically create a contract fee to correctly apply the Clarity Awarded Amount.

To ensure this fee displays clearly on the contract:

1. Navigate to Settings > Financial > Contract Fees.
2. Locate the item named Tuition Assistance Award (via Integration).
3. Click Edit next to the item. Rename the contract fee to your preferred display name, and update the Billing Category, if needed.

This updated name is what families will see on the final contract. The system needs a contract fee to apply the Clarity Awarded Amount correctly. Since the default name may be technical, we require users to update it to a customer-facing name that is appropriate for your school's final contract.

New fields from Clarity

Once the integration is enabled, admins will see four new fields in the system. These fields will auto-populate with data from Clarity and will be view-only in Finalsite under the Enrollment tab on the contact record, so data cannot be changed outside of Clarity. The fields will automatically be set to searchable in Finalsite so you can pull the data into a search.

Clarity Awarded Amount

This is the total aid amount that will be used for contracts. The amount will populate automatically once a decision has been made and confirmed by the school in Clarity. For schools using the Enrollment module, this field will populate the financial aid amount on the student's contract automatically to reduce the tuition amount.

Avoiding duplicate awards

If your school is using the Financial Aid Amount Grant field in Finalsite Enrollment, please be aware:

• This field does not sync with the Clarity Awarded Amount field.
• If both fields are used, both amounts will appear in the contract, which may result in duplicate financial aid awards.

To prevent this, we strongly recommend discontinuing use of the Financial Aid Amount Granted field once the Clarity integration is enabled.

Clarity Application Status

This is the status of the student's financial aid application. The status will appear within the field on the admin side and on the Parent Portal checklist item for families. See status definitions in the Clarity Application Status Definitions section below.

Clarity Application is Multi-Household

This field will be set to Yes in Finalsite Enrollment if a student has more than one household contributing to their education, and the parents/guardians complete separate financial aid applications in Clarity.

Clarity Application Status for multi-household families

Since there is only one checklist item and one "Clarity Application Status" field per student, Finalsite Enrollment will display the lowest application status between the two parents/guardians when the Clarity Application is Multi-Household field is set to Yes. Learn more about this in the Managing multiple households & financial aid applications section below.

Clarity Enrollment Status

Below is a list of enrollment statuses used in Clarity that will populate in this field:

• CURRENT_STUDENT_APPLICANT
• CURRENT_STUDENT_OFFERED
• RE_ENROLLED
• ATTRITION
• WAIT_POOL
• PROSPECT_APPLICANT
• PROSPECT_OFFERED
• PROSPECT_ENROLLED
• HOUSEHOLD_DECLINED
• SCHOOL_DECLINED
• APPLICATION_CANCELLED

Searching for the Clarity Fields

The four Clarity fields will automatically be set to Searchable within their Field Settings when the integration is set up, so you can pull these fields into a search as search criteria or display them as columns within your search results. Learn more about building searches by visiting Search Overview.

You can also add these fields to the Contact Widget to display them at the top of your student records.

Clarity Application Status definitions

As families progress through Clarity's financial aid application process, the application status will update and will be visible to the parent/guardian on Finalsite Enrollment's checklist. The status will also be visible to admins on the student record in the Clarity Application Status field. Below are the statuses and their definitions.

Not Started

Before an application is started for a student, the family will see two buttons on their checklist:

• Go to Clarity: This button will take them to the Clarity site to create an account and start an application.
• Financial Aid Not Needed: This button is for families that will not be going through the process to apply for financial aid. When selected, the checklist item will be marked as complete.

In Progress

In Progress status is when the student's application is underway. The family will see a Continue Application button on the checklist, which will take them to their family dashboard in Clarity. They will also see a message that says "Your Clarity application is currently in progress."

Application Complete

This status means that the family submitted the application and is pending school review. When the application is complete, the checklist item will be marked as complete, and families will see a View Status in Clarity button on the checklist, which will take them to the status page in Clarity. They will also see a message that says "Your application is being reviewed by the school." 

This status may change depending on additional document requirements by the school.

Managing financial aid applications for multi-household families

If a student has more than one household contributing to their education, Clarity makes it easy for each household to complete their own financial aid application.

How it works

• Families can indicate a second household during the financial aid application process.
• If selected, Clarity will prompt them to enter the second household’s email address. Providing an email address is optional.
• The family member in the second household will receive an email to complete their own financial aid application.
  • The second household does not need to receive the email to submit their application and can apply separately at any time.

Why two applications?

Each household completes a separate application because each parent/guardian may have a different financial situation. This means:

• Each household has its own application status in Clarity (e.g., one may be Application Complete, the other still In Progress).
• Clarity tracks both applications separately, but Finalsite only shows one status in the Clarity Application Status field per student.

What status will I see?

Clarity always shows the lowest status across both households. For example:

Household 1	Household 2	Status in Finalsite
Application Complete	In Progress	In Progress
Application Complete	Application Complete	Application Complete

Even if one parent has submitted their application, the checklist will show “In Progress” until both are complete.

If you're reviewing a student's financial aid status and see "In Progress," it may mean one household has submitted while the other has not. You can check Clarity directly to confirm which household is outstanding.